08/02/2015
NEWS STORY
Team founder Gian Carlo Minardi has leapt to the defence of Manor, insisting that the sport needs its little teams.
For many, no matter what team or driver they supported, the little Faenza-based outfit, which contested 340 Grands Prix between 1985 and 2005, was their second team. Totally outclassed in terms of budget, and therefore the ability to succeed, it more than made up it for in terms of passion and heart. Along the way Minardi also introduced a number of excellent drivers to the sport, not least Fernando Alonso.
Although, under Paul Stoddart, who bought the outfit in 2001, it became a lot more political, involved in more battles off the track than on, the passion remained.
As the furore over the Strategy Group's decision to block Manor's (Marussia) return to the grid continues, Gian Carlo Minardi has called on the sport not to forget its roots, not to forget that it is the little teams that make F1 what it is. He alos claims that losing the little teams will eventually impact the midfielders.
Describing the decision to block Manor, and the possible sharing out of its prize money, as "absurd and unsportsmanlike behaviour", he continues:
"(The) opposing, small teams hope to share the money due to Marussia, but perhaps they did not count to ten," he says on his website. "Get rid of the two Cinderellas, Marussia and Caterham, and it decreases the size of the grid.
"Consequently, (the) last row of the grid would be occupied by teams with far greater budgets and ambitions, such as Force India itself, Sauber and Lotus, teams for whom the commercial consequences of being on the back row would have greater consequences.
"This situation reminds me of the '96-'97 seasons," he continues, "when I defended very strongly the importance of small teams. I argued that without teams participating with great passion but limited means - hoping, who knows, to find the right funds for the future - on the back row there would inevitably be big manufacturers. This situation repeatedly occurred in the 2000s.
"The manufacturers will not wait years to grow and achieve positive results," he warned, "they have short-term objectives in terms of the commercial and image side of things and the consequence of the choices in those years, was that year after year we lost almost all of them.
"I hope that it is not the final decision and that there is room for reasoning," he said of the decision to block Manor. "Now as then, this sport needs those who laboriously take part still hoping to find the means for a more glorious future."
Chris Balfe